Toilet flush valve guide



April 24, 1962 T. H. MCCULLOUGH TOILET FLUSH VALVE GUIDE Filed July 1, 1959 6 m R/. m0 m6 VM mm 0 M M A m H B ATTORNEYS United States This invention is a novel guide for toilet flush valves. It is so constructed that it can be made entirely from sheet metal by means of using a blade and slideway construction. The blade is readily secured to the wire a tached to a toilet flush valve bulb. The slideway bracket is adapted to be mounted on existing stable structure within the flushing tank.

The problem of accurately seating the bulb of a toilet flushing valve is an old one. It is a major problem and concern of landlords Whose tenants are not always careful to see that flushed toilets shut off, as they should. Leaking toilet flush valves consume many gallons of Water in useless draining.

Many solutions have been offered for this problem. Most of these solutions require replacing regular equipment with special guides for the valves and the like. Perhaps the most common type of structure is that having guides for the bulb wire to slide in that are spaced more widely than the guides of standard equipment. The known prior art forms all employ either special wires that engage the bulb or wires formed into extensions of the usual bulb wire. These structures require the upper guide to be spaced above the highest point reached by the eye formed in the usual bulb wire. A structure not so limited can be used in a more confined space.

Accordingly, it is the principal object of this invention to provide a novel toilet flush valve guide that is adapted to be formed from sheet metal.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a guide that allows the eye of the flush valve bulb to move past the slideway of the guide.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a toilet flush valve guide that is adapted to be used with the standard flushing structure mechanism.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a guide that is quickly and easily installed and adjusted for proper operation of the device.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, this invention then comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following descriptions setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

The invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which the same numerals refer tocorresponding parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view of the essential elements of a toilet flush valve with the guide installed; portions of the equipment are deleted to conserve space; an adjusted position of parts is shown in broken lines;

FIGURE 2 is an elevation of the invention taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged plan view of the invention with portions of the bulb element broken away to conserve space;

FIGURE 4 is a vertical section of a fragment of the device taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 1; FIGURE 4 is drawn to the same scale as FIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary rear elevation of the upper blade portion and slideway; it is drawn to the same scale as FIGURES 3 and 4.

In the drawings the invention is shown in association with the usual toilet flush valve comprising the valve seat atent ice 10 in association with the usual overflow pipe 11 to which a guide 12 is secured. Bulb 14 normally seats on and closes the valve seat 10. It is pulled off its seat by means of the wire 15 having a suitable enlargement such as eye 16 at its upper end. Wire 15 extends through guide 12 and is intended to be guided straight up and down thereby. The bulb 14 is lifted off its seat by means of the link 17 which embraces the wire 15 with an eye 18 which is too small in inside diameter to slip over the eye 16 of wire 15. Link 18 is provided with the usual hook 19 that engages lever arm 21) of the flushing mechanism. This arm 21} is connected to the usual flushing handle which, when turned, causes the arm to pivot about point 21 and thereby exert a lifting action on bulb 14. As has been commonly experienced by most people, however, guide 12 is inadequate to assure always that bulb 14 will be properly reseated in the valve seat It} when the flushing tank has emptied. For this reason I have provided my additional guide element for the top of wire 15.

Blade 22 is L-shaped in cross section and secured to the upper end of wire 15 by means of having the wire pass through a pierced hole in the shorter leg 23- of blade 22 and also by having the upper end 24 of blade 22 secured to the eye 16 of Wire 15 by means of a nut and bolt assembly 25 extending through the eye of the wire and a pierced hole in the longer leg 24 of blade 22. The hole in the shorter leg is at the point of joinder of the two blade legs so that the wire 15 extending therethrough lies adjacent to the longer leg 24 of blade 22. The hole in blade portion 24 is spaced from the point where the two legs join. Once the blade 22 is secured to wire 15, link 17 may react with the shorter leg 23 of blade 22 in the same manner that it previously reacted with eye 16 of the wire 15. Blade 22 is engaged at its edges by the slideway 26. This slideway does not engage the blade at either its front or back center, as can be seen clearly in FIGURE 3. Another way of stating this structure is that the slideway for the blade is wider at its center portion than it is at its edges. This structure permits eye 16 as well as the nut and bolt assembly 25 to slide past the slideway 26 on occasion as shown by comparing broken and solid lines in FIGURE 1. Slideway 26 is supported on the arm 27 of the bracket generally designated 28 which is secured to some stable portion of a toilet flushing mechanism such as the overflow pipe 11. Collar 29 of the bracket 28 is a suitable means provided for securing the bracket to this stable support. As appears clearly on FIGURE 5, the vertical portion of the slideway 26 which lies adjacent to the arm 27 of bracket 28 has a slot therein designated 30 that serves to receive the nut and bolt assembly 31 of the bracket arm whereby the bracket and slideway may be secured together in a fixed position at times. The slot permits the adjustment of the slideway relative to the bracket to and from collar 29. This movement of the slideway 26 relative to arm 27 permits one dimension of alignment over bulb 14 to be achieved and the other is arranged by swinging the bracket 28 about the overflow pipe 11. The angular position of slideway 26 in relation to the bulb can be compensated for readily by simply turning the entire bulb structure relative to the circular valve seat or by twisting the wire within the bulb; they are generally threaded together. It will be understood that all portions of the guide must be made of a material that is not subject torapid oxidization when exposed to moisture such as brass. As is best illustrated in FIGURE 1, the device is quite simple in operation.

When the toilet is flushed, lever arm 28 is raised by turning the usual flushing handle (not shown) and bulb 14 is pulled off valve seat 1%. As the bulb is buoyant, it remains in the raised position shown in broken lines in FIGURE 1 until the water has been exhausted from the 3 tank of the toilet in the usual manner. Instead of being free to move laterally within the limits permitted by the usual guide 12, however, a bulb such as the one 14 here shown is precisely guided back to valve seat by means of the blade 22 sliding in the slideway 26 which limits movement of the top of wire in all directions. Bulb 14 therefore will be consistently reseated accurately on valve seat 10. As bulb 14 rises during the flushing operation, it can be seen that the nut and bolt assembly 24 necessarily pass the bracket and slideway 25. If there were not room for the eye and nut and bolt assembly to pass slideway 26, blade 22 would have to be much longer and the guide or slideway positioned much farther above the end of Wire 15. The structure therefore offers a compact unit that can be readily secured to and used with standard equipment as an accessory. It is readily adapted to being constructed from sheet metal and therefore inexpensively manufactured.

It is apparent that many modifications and variations of this invention as hereinbefore set forth may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. The specific embodiments described are given by Way of example only and the invention is limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A toilet flush valve guide comprising; an L-shaped blade having a short leg portion and a long leg portion;

the short leg portion of said L-shaped blade being pierced adjacent the point of joinder of the leg rportions; the long leg portion of said blade being pierced at a distance from the point of joinder of said leg portions; a slide way having horizontal and vertical portions; the horizontal portion of said slide way being cut away to embrace edge portions only and being cut to avoid the center front and back of said blade; the vertical portion of said slide way having a slot therein; a bracket having a pierced arm; a nut and bolt assembly extending through the slot in said guide way horizontal portion and the hole pierced in said bracket arm; a nut and bolt assembly in the hole pierced in said blade along leg; and means on said bracket to secure it rigidly to a stable element in a toilet flush tank.

2. A toilet flush valve guide comprising a bracket adapted to be secured to a stable element in a toilet flush tank, a slide way comprising a horizontally positioned, slotted piece of sheet metal secured to said bracket, said slide way slot being wider at its center portions than at its sides, a blade L-shaped in vertical section adapted to be secured to the flush valve of a toilet and slidably engaging the slot of said slide way and having holes in both the legs thereof, one of said blade holes capable of embracing a wire connected to the bulb of a toilet flush valve and the other of said blade holes being laterally centered and capable of receiving a nut and bolt assembly that is long enough to extend also through an eye formed in a wire embraced by said one blade hole.

3. A toilet flush valve guide comprising a bracket adapted to be secured to a stable element in a toilet flush tank, a slide way comprising a horizontally positioned, slotted piece of sheet metal secured to said bracket, said slide way slot being wider at its center portions than at its sides, a blade adapted to be secured to the flush valve mechanism and slidably engaging the slot of said slide References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Fulton May 23; 1950 Bill et a1. July 26, 1955 

